Video editing software recommendations

[MouseAT]

I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding video editing software that's easily deployable and manageable across large numbers of PCs.

 

Our media department have been using Serif MoviePlus for their video editing for a number of years. We currently have 200 licences, and are currently right on our limit for numbers. As our school has added an additional IT room over the summer, and has re-roomed some of the media classes for the 2018-2019 academic year, we're now in the position where the media department have requested MoviePlus on additional machines. As MoviePlus is a discontinued product, we can no longer purchase additional licences, so whilst we're currently in discussions to see if we can relocate some of our existing licences from elsewhere on our site, we may have to start looking at alternatives.

 

We've had a couple of requests from one of the media teachers, along the lines of "commercial product X has a cut down, free version, can we install that?". On both occasions, said free version only allows individual use on one machine by one individual, and/or requires individual activation on each PC. In one case, even the commercial version had to be activated individually on each computer, and provided no way to transfer a licence around. Any video editing application that we use would have to be installed on at least 235 machines, so this isn't a feasible solution.

 

My question is this: Does anyone have any recommendations for cost effective video editing software that can easily be deployed and managed across large numbers of computers? Full site licences would be ideal, fixed numbers of seats would also be feasible for us. Some sort of product activation via. some sort of licensing server wouldn't present a problem, but any sort of manual activation is a no-go - we need a solution where SCCM can put the software on an imaged computer and the software is good to go without any manual intervention.

[FN-GM]

Hello,

 

I am not sure how capable the product is but Adobe Spark is getting popular here. It is 100% web based and easy to use (apparently). It might be worth looking at?

 

Thanks

[PotNoodleTech]

Still using movie plus (Design Suite) here. Moving to anything else seemed totally unaffordable.

 

I would probably in your position lay it on the line that media classes are going to have to be in certain areas with movie plus installed.

[dhicks]

My question is this: Does anyone have any recommendations for cost effective video editing software that can easily be deployed and managed across large numbers of computers?

 

If I understand correctly, a number of media production houses are moving to DaVinci Resolve as part of their video-editing workflows - if one of the considerations for what package to use is "what is industry using" then that's an option. It's free, unless you need support for things like 8k video. I don't know how user-friendly it is or if it's suitible for whatever age range of pupils you are catering for. I also haven't tried installing it on multiple machines, so I don't know if it packages up properly or not, but at least licensesing shouldn't be an issue.

 

For something simpler but capable, perhapse more for younger pupils, then I have used WeVideo - web-based, logins integrated with GSuite so user management is easy. Might need checking as to how much bandwidth you need to run it - might not actually be as much as you think, but something to check beforehand.

[PotNoodleTech]

For something simpler but capable, perhapse more for younger pupils, then I have used WeVideo - web-based, logins integrated with GSuite so user management is easy. Might need checking as to how much bandwidth you need to run it - might not actually be as much as you think, but something to check beforehand.

 

That sounds interesting as every pupil here has a google account!

[MouseAT]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'll have to check some of these out over the next few days.

 

Still using movie plus (Design Suite) here. Moving to anything else seemed totally unaffordable.

 

I would probably in your position lay it on the line that media classes are going to have to be in certain areas with movie plus installed.

 

Yeah, I suspect that may be the way in which we end up handling this, at least if my current approach of seeing if there are any existing rooms where I can free up MoviePlus if it's no longer required doesn't pan out. It doesn't help that the school decided to put in a new IT suite over the summer, primarily for media, without any consideration for the fact that all of our MoviePlus licences are already allocated elsewhere on site.

 

At the end of the day, I'm just trying to cover as many bases as possible here, so that if it comes down to the crunch, I can offer some options, each with pros and cons. If the bosses get involved, it's easy enough for me to explain the situation, lay a few viable options on the table and leave the choice to them. My intention is just to have some options that might work to help offset the fact that I've already shot down two suggestions that absolutely won't work due to technical limitations or licence restrictions. If some of the options are more limited in functionality, or come at significant expense to the school, that isn't really my problem - I didn't create this situation, so it's not my job to find some magical, perfect solution that probably doesn't exist.

Edited September 19, 2018 by MouseAT

[PotNoodleTech]

Yes ultimately it comes down to money - if you want professional video editing software on 300 PCs it's gonna cost tens of thousands to licence.

 

The decision is for those up top if it is worth spending that kind of money when you already have a solution that works, for free with just a bit of time table rejigging.

 

I suspect I know the answer!

[dhicks]

Yes ultimately it comes down to money - if you want professional video editing software on 300 PCs it's gonna cost tens of thousands to licence.

 

Not necessarily - DaVinci Resolve is free, and very much at the "professional" end of things. Of course, Blackmagic Design are trying to use it as a hook to sell you one of their very nice cameras:

 

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk

 

If the software is free, a spare £1,000 or so might be found for a snazzy new 4K cinema-quality camera for the GCSE / A-level film students...

[PotNoodleTech]

Not necessarily - DaVinci Resolve is free, and very much at the "professional" end of things. Of course, Blackmagic Design are trying to use it as a hook to sell you one of their very nice cameras:

 

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk

 

If the software is free, a spare £1,000 or so might be found for a snazzy new 4K cinema-quality camera for the GCSE / A-level film students...

 

Thanks I will have a look at that!

 

Regarding the camera, Nock a zero off and then we're talking

[dhicks]

Regarding the camera, Nock a zero off and then we're talking

 

Hmm, almost - the new GoPro range is out, the low-end model is £180:

 

https://shop.gopro.com/EMEA/cameras/hero7-black/CHDHX-701-master.html

[Domino]

Lightworks is in a similar position - and quite similar to Premiere regarding layout if transitioning is a concern

 

https://www.lwks.com/

 

Not sure how nicely it plays with multiuser stuff - but might be worth a look.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Domino

[MouseAT]

Lightworks is in a similar position - and quite similar to Premiere regarding layout if transitioning is a concern

 

https://www.lwks.com/

 

Not sure how nicely it plays with multiuser stuff - but might be worth a look.

 

That's a no go - it's one of the ones our media department asked us to look into.

 

The free version is only licensed for a single user on a single machine. The professional versions appear to require individual activation, and do not provide any means of transferring a licence from one computer to another. There's no way that'll fly in an environment like ours.